I've got two problems with Categories that I can't figure out.

1)It's not uncommon for me to check what Categories a story is in, and then when I save it, there are no Categories listed.

2)Even more puzzling, is when I post two articles, with different Categories, they seem to "cross pollinate." For example, if Article 1 will be in "Science" & "Big Pharma" and Article 2 in "Government" it's not uncommon for Article 1 ends up also having "Government" when I click to show Categories on the Admin page. Or Article 2 to end up with Article 1's Categories appended on.

I know this sounds nuts. I've been carefully trying to look for patterns to this (like only happening with certain Categories) and obviously being sure I haven't mistakenly checked or unchecked Categories boxes. But neither of these problems shows any pattern to me other than they only show up when I initially create the entries.

If they are correct when I click on Categories (showing all categories) in the Admin panel, they don't revert. It's only when they are initially saved. I know this sounds like I must be doing this, but I swear I've really double checked this before I click Save and still found the Categories to be incorrect when I check using the Admin page.

Am I going crazy or is there a way you can possibly imagine this happening?

Okay, now I have a bit more evidence (I have before/after screenshots of this, if you want to see them, but apparently I don't have the privs to upload them.) and hopefully someone will be able to figure this out.

This morning I created Article 1 and gave it Categories of "Societies & Culture" and "Entertaining". Set the Date for tomorrow morning and saved it, with out problems. Then I created Article 2 and gave it Categories of "Government" and "Conspiracies & Coverups" and also set the Date for tomorrow morning.

When I hit Save, and was taken to the Admin page, I saw that Article 2 had no Categories. I clicked on Categories to show all categories, and Article 1 had its Categories, plus Article 2's Categories.

So I have proof I'm not crazy, but I still have no idea why it's doing this. Anyone?

It definitely sounds like a bug but I've been unable to replicate it. Can you tell me which browser your using along with the exact version number?

Firefox 3.6.16

It happens fairly often. I usually post two articles - with tomorrow's date for 6am - at a time. I've not tried a different browser or posting date/time variation.

I never did delete your Kurisuw acct so if you want to try logging in and seeing if you can replicate it, feel free.

Thanks, Chris.

I just got notice of unapproved posts so I figure you're in there now.

Just as an fyi, I noticed that I got an email for test, test1 and test2. Assuming you're posting in twos, I should have gotten test 3. This reminds me that I also have noticed that I don't get the second email when this happens to me.

If that's helpful.

Still can't replicate this. I made a few test posts in your system and assigned them to the same categories you mentioned, set them to a date in the future and waited for them to show. Nothing unusual happened, the articles remained assigned to the categories they were originally assigned to.

Well that's interesting because it just happened to me again this morning. Sign in and see the "Autistic boy" and "Apple blocks" posts - "Autistic boy" has 4 categories assigned to it. The first two were the ones I assigned to it, and the second two appended on from the "Apple blocks" article, which now has no categories assigned to it.

Hope that helps figure out the problem.

PS - As I had mentioned before, there seems to be a concurrent problem with the email notifications when this happens. I got the email for the first, "Autistic boy" post, but did not receive one for the second article.

You see this is also interesting. You have the only other account within the news system and you have all privileges meaning that when you post a news article, it is automatically approved. The email notifications system only has 3 options. Send a notification email if "new comment/new registration/new unapproved post" so you shouldn't actually be getting any email notifications.

I have a feeling there are some dark forces at work here. There is absolutely no reason why posts would "forget" what categories they have assigned to them and have those categories assigned to another posts. Similarly you should not be getting email notifications.

I'll have a look at this again today at some point. Are you using any modifications to the script or any custom code that somehow modifies the database at all?

Not being a programmer, I'm afraid I wouldn't begin to know how to modify the program. I've got some code for the news template pages that says how many articles and which categories to display, like are shown in the N-13 Help examples, but nothing that has to do with posting the articles themselves or the Admin page.

I don't know if this is a clue to something funky on the Admin page or not, but if you sign in and click on Options, just to the right of the Access Levels menu, do you see "yes?" I have no idea what that's about, but I've just figured it was orphaned code that wasn't hurting anything. It doesn't bother me, but I just point it out in case it means something to you.

Btw, I think I always gotten email notifications. But I would get one for each post. I thought the notifications were strange too since it says "New Unapproved" as the subject and they are approved, as you say. But it seemed like a minor glitch that doesn't really bother me.

Thanks, Chris.

Curious if you have any other thoughts on this as the problem persists? I don't even have to create the articles at the same time. I created one this morning, and the other just now - about 6 hrs later. The second article has no categories and the first article has its two plus the second article's.

So weird. Also,I got an "New Unapproved" email for both of them.